I think that every personal web site needs an article about the kitchen sink. Well, I've finally managed to get a story together about our kitchen sink. My wife rang me during the week with the news that the cabinet under our sink was full of water ... including water on the kitchen floor. Oh no! She also let me know that she had found the problem - the sink leaks.

I looked at it when I got home to find that the big ring that holds the sink basket in place had cracked. Thus the basket was loose and water was running down the outside of the pipes - not the inside. That is just wrong. I love these little types of jobs. A chance to stop pushing numbers around and to actually do something. Luckily, it is just the right size. It also reminds me of a plumber saying I heard once ... We repair what your husband fixed.

To the right is the pipe layout under my sink. This is the old version. The version that I had to change. The ring (A) had cracked (see below) and so I had to replace it. That also involved replacing the sink basket. To be honest, the old basket looked really crappy. It was brass and had lots of rub marks, caught lots of junk and blocked every now and then. So, trip to home depot and I picked up a new sink basket. But before that, I researched about fixing sinks and found this really useful site. After reading this, I also got some clear silicone and some pipe thread compound (pipe dope). I even took a print out of the site to help me in explaining to the Home Depot people.

So, Saturday rolled around and it was 'fix sink' day. I took the old ring out only to find that I couldn't actually get it down. The dishwasher drain was soldered into the back of the brass pipe. Hmm - I think this will need another trip to Home Depot. I ended up finding Joe - everyone knows Joe - the old guy that looks after the plumbing isle. He was really helpful, but he kept on providing answers before I had finished explaining the problem and then getting upset when I say, no - I don't need an S-Bend.

It ended up that I also needed to replace the brass downpipe (B). But not one pipe - two pipes. The top pipe has a little outlet that hooks up to the dishwasher drain while the bottom section just acts as an extension.

Why is it that 1 small break in a 50c ring results in 2 trips to Home Depot, long conversations with Joe and hours of plumbing research. See the picture below for the culprit.

The actual time to put it all together was only about 5 minutes. Cut off the top of a few squeeze tubes, press out some silicone, push down the sink basket, attach the new down pipe, cut down the extension, wrap that pipe with a bit of plumber tape (it was a little small), a bit more silicone, hook that up and ... all done. About 10 minutes of actual work.

I then fill the sink up ... half a sink of water. Let it sit and cross fingers. Back in 5 minutes and zero leaks. Check on the sink basket - now to test the pipes. Unplug the sink and - wow, that drains quickly. Look under the sink for all the water flowing where it shouldn't ... no water. Ok, there is a very small bead of water right at the bottom of the white plastic pipe.

Edit: I notice after I posted this photo of the neatly arranged tools - who would have thought that they would look so neat just by dropping them when I don't need them.